


Sandcastle

by leafyxthiefy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach Day, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beach Day, Gift Fic, In which they meet when they were younger and find eachother again, M/M, Sandcastle Building, Shklance Summer Exchange, kiddos to adults, let these kids be soft and love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 19:59:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15323175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafyxthiefy/pseuds/leafyxthiefy
Summary: When he is younger, Shiro meets Keith. A boy who is kind to him without much of a reason. They promise to be best friends, and Shiro never forgets. He will meet his best friend again, someday. They pinky promised. Keith's POV.





	Sandcastle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [itbepansam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/itbepansam/gifts).



> Hey guys! So this is my fic gift for [It be Space Gays](http://itbespacegays.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr ^^ I hope you like it. <3 I'm also sorry it took this long for me to gift you ;^;/.
> 
> Enjoy!~

"No! My bucket! Wait!"

Keith wasn't sure why this particular shout pulled his attention away from the moat he was digging and to the near distance where a boy chased the ocean. Sadly for the boy, the sea had already swallowed the plastic purple bucket and had claimed it for its own by the time he reached the shoreline. Leaving a very upset boy looking after it.

The kid was facing away from Keith, but even from that angle Keith could see the small tremors that shook his shoulders. Young as he was back then, Keith had known all too well what the hunched and trembling shoulders meant. His little sister Acxa tended to do the same whenever she was holding in her tears and trying her hardest not to let Keith see her cry.

Keith looked back to where his parents and sister were sitting on the beach towel not so far from where he was building his castle. Keith's dad smiled brightly and waved to him, earning the same in return before Keith ran up to the boy. Maybe it was because the other boy resembled Acxa in that way, or because Keith had witnessed the final moments of the bucket that he decided to walk over to the other kid.

"Hey, um..." Keith frowned and unconsciously puffed up his cheeks in the same way Krolia was prone to doing when she was deep in thought. Keith wasn't used to giving comfort to anyone besides Acxa, so he hadn't been quite sure how to approach the situation. He had almost backed out a few times on his way over before realizing that it was too late to turn back.

"You can come help me build my castle…" Keith finally offered. Though he didn't get an immediate offer, and when the kid finally looked at him, Keith felt the need to add, "If you want."

The boy sniffled miserably his bottom lip trembling, and eyes filled with unshed tears as he considered Keith's offer. "But I–" a hiccup interrupted him, "I lost my bucket."

"You can use my sister's bucket, s'not like she's using it." Keith said pointing back to where his and Acxa's pails and shovels were sitting on the sand.

The boy looked from Keith to where he was pointing, his sniffling slowly subsiding. And it wasn't until he was wiping away at his eyes with the back of his hands that he finally asked, "Are you sure?"

Keith frowned, he wouldn't have asked if he  _wasn't_  sure. "Yeah, I'm digging the moat right now but you can get started on the walls, okay?"

The kid nodded, "Mhm… let me just tell my mom where I'm gonna be okay?"

He began to head in the direction where Keith could only guess that his mom was, before he looked back to Keith "I'm Takashi by the way, and you?"

"Keith." his smile was small, but no less sincere as he waved off the boy and went back to his spot in the sand. Not long after Takashi was back and they began to plan out their marvelous castle.

"We should name the castle something cool, what's your favorite animal?" Takashi asked as he packed on more dirt to one of the towers.

Keith hesitated before he answered, "I like hippos."

"Hippos are cool. I like their ears." Takashi smiled and Keith had to snap his mouth shut before he said anything; he was ready to defend the creatures he loved so much with every last breath he had. He was so unused to people agreeing with him when it came to his fondness of hippos. So it was a pleasant surprise to know that he wasn't the only one who thought that hippos could be cool.

"Cat's are my favorite though." Takashi smiled, "I have a cat back at home named Black."

"Lucky." Keith pouted, "I wish I could have a hippo, but mom said I could only have a stuffed one. When I grow up I'm gonna have all the hippos in the world!"

"Awesome! Man, I wish I could have all the cat's in the world."

"Who says you can't." Keith frowned and puffed his cheeks up again only to gasp in excitement. "I know! We can get a real castle just like this one! And I can keep all of my hippos in the moat and you can have all the cats in here." Keith pointed to the inside of the castle, beaming at how brilliant his idea was.

"You mean it? We can share that castle too?" Shiro smiled back in excitement.

"Yeah! It'll be ours and we can have all the animals we want!"

"That would be the coolest thing… we have to promise we'll do that when we grow up." Takashi suddenly shot his hand up, pinky out and looking expectantly at Keith. "Pink promise?"

Keith couldn't keep the smile off of his face even if he tried, "Yeah!" he curled his own pinky finger around Takashi's and grinned. "I promise. Cross my heart of hope to die."

"I can't wait to grow up if it means I get to live with you." Takashi smiled.

"Hey if you like cats, do you like lions too?"

Takashi considered this for a second before nodding. "Lions are big cats so yes!"

Keith smiled, "So what if we call this the Castle of Lions? Castle of Hippos sounds kinda silly, so Lions good with you?"

"Castle of Lions yes! Are you sure you're okay with it not being the castle of Hippos?"

Keith nodded, hippos were his favorite animal, but there was no reason for lions to be his second favorite animals, besides they made Takashi happy. "We can name something after the Hippos… Hippo moat! See Lion Castle and the Hippo moat."

Takashi opened his mouth to reply when his name made both boys look over to where a woman was waving and shouting something Keih couldn't really understand.

Takashi shouted something back that sounded similar enough to what his mother had said before turning to Keith with a sad look on his face. "I'm sorry, I gotta go."

Keith's own face fell with the news, he had made a friend and the last thing he wanted was for him to leave now. They weren't even done yet! But he knew better than to argue against a parent when they said it was time to go.

"Okay. Bye." Keith mumbled stubbornly looking at the castle and not at Takashi, but then there was a pinky invading his line of sight.

Keith's brow furrowed as he followed the arm up to Takashi's face, where he smiled tentatively, "Don't look sad Keith, this is only good bye for now. I'll always be your friend okay. That's a promise."

The smile returned to Keith's face, and he curled his pinky finger around Takashi's again, but he was still unsure of what Takashi was saying. "Promise?"

"Of course, we gotta be best friends forever if we want to live in a castle someday."

After that Takashi left with his mom, but not before Keith's dad took a picture of their castle with both boys standing proudly on either side of it.

* * *

That had been fifteen years ago and a memory Keith had long ago forgotten until he came across a dust layered shoe box from when he was a kid. And underneath a handful of silly keepsakes and pictures of him and Acxa as children, Keith found one of him and a boy standing next to a sandcastle, the back of the polaroid read " _Castle of Lions, '95._ " in his father's neat writing.

Keith thought about tossing the picture away, but before he could do so his phone buzzed in his pocket. Unsurprisingly, it was a text from Lance.

_Lancey-Lance: Hey Bello! We'll be there in 5. Your butt better be ready to party! :D  
_

Keith set the box aside and left it for his future self to deal with; since knowing Lance, the guy would not be above storming into Keith's family house and dragging him out ready or not.

Keith slipped on his sleeveless hoodie and headed downstairs where he waved to his parents. "I'll be home by eleven."

"Be responsible!" his father called after him at the same time as his mom chimed in, "Have fun!"

"I will!" Keith answered them both and was just in time to see Hunk's yellow Jeep Wrangler pull up.

"So are you ready to party or what Mullet?" Lance exclaimed as soon as Keith climbed onto the vehicle.

"Or what? What else are we going to do?" Keith asked, confusion written on his face.

"It was a rhetorical question, you were supposed to answer with,  _yeah I'm ready to party!"_

Keith's eyebrow rose along with his confusion, "But i know we're heading to the party. Where's Pidge anyway?"

While Lance muttered rapidly under his breath in spanish, Hunk shared a smile with Keith through the rearview mirror. "One of Matt's buddies from college is visiting for the summer so they went ahead of us."

"Ah." was all Keith said as he settled into his seat, comfortably listening to Lance and Hunk rehash the latest episode to their favorite drama Arus High. Keith would think that they would all be over high school scenarios by now, but he had to admit that there was a strange kind of appeal to it. Keith wasn't as hooked, but he knew the characters well enough to follow along.

Not even twenty minutes later, the three of them were unloading Hunk's Jeep and heading towards the beach in search of the Holt siblings.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just call them?" Keith asked as he scanned the crowd.

"Where's the fun in that?" Lance asked, "First person to spot them gets free ice cream!"

"You're on!" Hunk grinned, searching the beach with renewed vigor, while Keith puffed out his cheeks.

"Hold on, who's buying the ice cream."

"Don't get held up on the details  _Bello."_ Lance waved off his concern and pointed in a direction, "Hey I think I–no that isn't them."

Hunk scanned the water while Lance looked back and forth and Keith wandered away, not really interested in the proposed game.

"Keith!" he turned in the direction his name was called and saw two small hands being waved at him. Keith smiled easily as he was embraced by Pidge and returned the hug with one arm.

"Hey Pidge, find a good spot?"

"The best! Tonight is gonna be awesome, c'mon Matt's dying to see you again." Pidge pulled Keith towards the spot they had chosen where sure enough the older Holt sibling was waiting to ambush Keith with another hug.

"Still have that mullet I see." Matt noted, earning an eye roll from Keith. "Though to be quite frank with you, I've never seen anyone quite pull it off like you do. Well, I mean, Mrs. Kogane aside."

Before Keith could come up with a proper response to that Matt pressed his hand over Keith's mouth, much to the annoyance of the younger man. "Hold that thought! Where's the string bean and grill master?"

Keith didn't even try to answer past Matt's palm, slapping at it instead until Matt let him go. "Probably got lost looking for you guys, but I'm not too worried."

Pidge hummed next to Keith, "Of everyone here, Lance is the most likely to survive in this environment, and Hunk is resilient enough to adapt."

Keith smiled, "Exactly."

Matt looked mildly disappointed with having to wait a little longer to see his friends once more, but in a couple of seconds he was back to beaming at Keith. "Ah, well really they did their job in getting you here. So, why don't you and I catch up in the meantime?"

"Sure." Keith couldn't say he wasn't skeptical at the smile and secretive look the two siblings shared and sent his way. Nonetheless, Keith let himself be lead away as Matt asked him about what he had been up to during Matt's time away.

"Well, just last week Acxa and I–"

"Ug-huh, fascinating Keith, really. But I'm gonna stop you right there, cuz look who decided to rejoin us." Keith had expected to see either Lance or Hunk but instead he was met with someone he had never met. If Matt hadn't interrupted Keith when he had, Keith was fairly certain that he would have stopped all on his own. The man–yes, he was a  _man,_ Keith was sue that no other term would do him justice–before him was, for the lack of a better word,  _gorgeous!_

Keith swallowed unconsciously and when the man smiled, Keith was momentarily relieved of his soul. Normally Keith would never look twice at other people, nor cared when they sent a smile that way, but the way that this person was smiling at him… no wait, the smile wasn't meant for him. It was meant for Matt.

Disappointment churned in Keith's gut as he looked away just as Lance and Hunk ran up to them.

"So this is where you've been Mullet! Hunk and I have been searching half the ocean for you guys!" Lance did his best to sound stern, but it lost most of its strength when half his breath left his lungs faster than he could collect it.

"You're not even wet." Keith deadpanned.

"We don't need to get ourselves wet to search the ocean." Lance shot back regaining his breath faster than Hunk and immediately doing a double take in the direction of their newest addition.

"Woah! Who's this  _hermoso_?"

Keith's face flushed with heat in response to Lance's words, though it was clear that the one in question had no idea he was being complemented.

"Ah? Sorry?" even his apologetic smile was endearing!

"Great now that you're all here!" Matt slipped away from Keith and in a much too grandesque show he gestured to the equally confused man. "Gang, sans Pidge, I am more than pleased to introduce you to Shiro! My best friend in the whole world and the absolutely best room mate a man could have through college. Shiro these are my other best friends, Hunk, Lance, and Keith."

They all exchanged hellos and Keith was honestly surprised that all three of them were able to fall so easily into conversation with Shiro. Keith couldn't see anything that he didn't like about him, not that he immediately searched out the worst traits of people he met, he just meant that he really  _liked_  Shiro.

An hour later, Allura and her cousin Romelle joined them and Lance went from annoying Keith to fawning over his girlfriend.

Keith was in the middle of watching their interactions when a soft voice startled him, almost making him fall off of his perch on the old beached log. "Keith?"

Shiro looked equally as apologetic as he did guilty. "I'm sorry, I'll just…"

Keith shook his head and made room for Shiro to sit on the log. "Don't worry about it, it's cool I was just thinking. What's up?"

Shiro took the offered seat and shrugged a shoulder. "I. This is going to sound weird, but have we met before?"

Keith, personally didn't think it sounded too weird, but he didn't say so. "I think I would remember a six foot wall of muscle with a white forelock." especially with how nice and fucmking beautiful he was, but Keith wasn't about to mention that.

Shiro though, looked unconvinced, "I haven't always been this way, I used to be as thin as a rail when I was moving from home to home, so I thought that maybe I met you while I made my way here?"

Keith shook his head, "I've lived here my whole life, so unless one of your homes was here?"

There was disappointment in Shiro's eyes, but before Keith could even try to apologize for it, Matt was suddenly there.

"So are you guys in?"

"In?" they both asked in unison.

Behind Matt, Pidge rolled her eyes."Castle building contest, winner gets the largest slice of Hunk's homemade coffee cake. The teams are, Matt and I, Allura and Lance, Romelle called Hunk, so…" their smiles turned sly, "Shiro you're paired up with Keith."

"Well now we have to win." Shiro chuckled, while Keith frowned. "If the winner is a team, and the team wins the biggest slice of cake, wouldn't they have to share that slice and actually get a smaller piece?"

"Shhh, technicalities!" Pidge chided and everyone was handed their pails and shovels.

"We have two hours, let the best sandcastle win!"

Lance and Allura immediately went off to collect sea water while Matt and Pidge discussed how to best sculpt the sand so that it would be structurally stable. And Romelle and Hunk were fabricating a story behind the castle that they would build, complete with a dragon and princess.

"Any ideas?" Keith asked, and Shiro shrugged. "I'm not the best architect but we can draw it out in the sand before getting started?"

"Sounds good to me." Keith smiled and they picked up their building materials and went to work.

"And here we can have the castle sigil?"

"You said you  _weren't_  and architect." Keith laughed though nodded all the same, "looks good, let's do it."

"I'm not, but my mom taught me a few things, though the key is water, you'd think that'd be the downfall but it's the key."

He was so serious about his castle building that Keith couldn't help but chuckle. "We're making you the head of this project, I'll get the water while you find the sand you like best?"

Shiro nodded and they did just that.

Each team worked in their own space and Shiro and Keith fell into easy conversation that ranged from their interests to their opinions on some classic movies. They worked with a blocked out castle and began to shave off layers as they worked their way down, sometimes they fell into silence, but then the conversation would rise up again.

In the short time they found that they had quite a few things in common, both of them were studying environmental impact on wildlife, Keith was bi and Shiro was gay, but they were both single. They both enjoyed alternative punk and though Shiro was reluctant to admit at first, he recognized a k-pop song Keith had been humming to.

It wasn't until Shiro was sculpting out the sigil of the castle that Keith paused and  _really_  looked at Shiro.

"What are you doing?"

Shiro hummed, "A lion? Does it not look like a lion? I'm sorry I've only ever sketched them but I can try to rework it if–"

"No that's not what I meant…" Keith's cheeks puffed as he looked at the lion, "It's just that, nevermind. It looks like a lion, a really cool lion. Sorry."

Shiro smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "It's alright. We should name the castle something cool, what's your favorite animal?"

Keith had the oddest sense of deja vu as he regarded Shiro with a wary look. "I like hippos."

Shiro's smile brightened, "Hippos are cool, mind if I ask why?"

"Because they fight back. When they feel threatened, they know when to defend themselves. They're resilient and can get along with other creatures so long as they don't get too close. Also, the way they move their ears is pretty cute."

Shiro chuckled. "I never thought of them that way, but I now have a newfound appreciation for hippos, thanks. My favorites are cats, all of them really domestic and wild."

Keith's eyebrows knitted in thought until he tentatively asked, "Does  _'Castle of Lions'_ mean anything to you?"

His brilliant smile finally reached his eyes, "When I was little a boy around my age was kind enough to let me build a castle with him, and we promised we would be best friends forever."

Keith's eyes were so wide he feared they would fall out of his head. "Takashi?"

"I was beginning to wonder if you were the Keith I promised to build a castle with." Shiro laughed, "I'm happy to see you again Keith."

Keith's thoughts were on the picture he had found just that morning and was visualizing the kid from before to the man sitting mere feet away from him. Keith had to be dreaming, and yet he wished that he wasn't. "How did you?"

Shiro's smile looked sheepish now. "Matt. I mentioned to him once that the reason I got into animal conservation was because a kid I met long ago said we would once have a castle together and house all these animals. It was a child's dream back then, but as I grew up I realized it wasn't impossible. He then freaked out and called Katie and well, they orchestrated all of this to see if you would remember."

Keith looked behind him where all of his friends were trying to be discreet in their eavesdropping. Keith couldn't find it in himself to even be mildly annoyed by their meddling, because if they hadn't then he wouldn't be where he was.

"So," Takashi grinned, "Would you still like to move into a castle with me?"

Keith laughed. "Really? You're not even going to offer me dinner first?"

Shiro laughed with him. "Fair enough, does Hunk's bonfire cook out count?"

"Definitely." Keith couldn't stop smiling even if he tried.


End file.
